Over at the Tax Policy Center’s blog, TaxVox, my colleague Roberton Williams examines the pitfalls that afflict some efforts to measure a person’s tax rate: Investment manager James Ross last week told New York Times columnist James Stewart that his combined federal, state, and local tax rate was 102 percent. No doubt, Ross did pay a lot [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Taxes’
The 102% Tax Rate and Other Perils Measuring Tax Rates
Posted in Budget, Taxes, tagged Measurement, New York Times, Taxes on February 8, 2012 | 3 Comments »
Capital Gains Taxes Are Going Up
Posted in Budget, Taxes, tagged Budget, Capital Gains, Taxes on January 24, 2012 | 3 Comments »
The top tax rate on long-term capital gains is currently 15%. That’s why Mitt Romney is spending so much time talking about his tax returns. That revelation has set off a familiar debate about whether that low rate is appropriate. Often overlooked in these discussions, however, is the fact that the days of the 15% [...]
Time’s Almost Up for $152 Billion in Expiring Provisions
Posted in Budget, Taxes, tagged Budget, Taxes on December 12, 2011 | 2 Comments »
America is increasingly governed by temporary policies. The 2001/2003/2010 tax cuts get most of the attention, but they are hardly the only ones. There are also a host of other semi-permanent provisions like patching the alternative minimum tax (AMT), avoiding big cuts to what Medicare pays doctors (the “doc fix”), and a plethora of miscellaneous [...]
Our Ever-Changing Tax Code
Posted in Budget, Politics, tagged Taxes on November 28, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Graphic by Wesley Bedrosian as part of the Wall Street Journal’s weekend article on tax planning. After all, who doesn’t want to spend Thanksgiving weekend thinking about taxes?
Sign Your Tax Return in Blue Ink
Posted in Life, tagged Taxes on November 22, 2011 | 5 Comments »
Esther and I got a scary piece of mail yesterday. The fine folks at the Internal Revenue Service sent our entire tax return back to us. Minus the accompanying check, of course. A cover sheet said we had failed to sign the return, which we filed on a timely basis in October. That sounds easy to fix, except for [...]
What Should We Do With Higher Gas Tax Revenues?
Posted in Budget, Energy, Environment, tagged Budget, Gasoline, Infrastructure, Oil, Taxes on November 1, 2011 | 5 Comments »
Most of the economics bloggers I know favor higher gasoline taxes. Not immediately, of course, given our economic weakness. But eventually because of environmental and national security concerns. As noted yesterday, Tim Kane of the Kauffman Foundation does a quarterly survey of economics bloggers. This time around, Tim included a question from me about the [...]
Happy Anniversary, Tax Reform
Posted in Budget, Politics, tagged Politics, Taxes on October 22, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Twenty-five years ago today, President Ronald Reagan signed the Tax Reform Act of 1986 into law. Happy silver anniversary, tax reform! Over at the Tax Policy Center, Len Burman and Gene Steuerle, both Treasury staffers at the time, and Howard Gleckman, who covered the proceedings for BusinessWeek, offer personal reflections on how TRA86 happened and [...]
Taxes and Energy Policy
Posted in Budget, Energy, Environment, Politics, tagged Energy, Environment, Politics, Taxes on September 29, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Last week I had the opportunity to testify before two Ways and Means subcommittees–Select Revenue Measures and Oversight–about the way our tax system is used as a tool of energy policy. Here are my opening remarks. You can find my full testimony here. As you know, our tax system is desperately in need of reform. It’s needlessly complex, economically [...]
Why Do Half of Americans Pay No Federal Income Tax?
Posted in Budget, Politics, tagged Budget, Income, Politics, Taxes on July 27, 2011 | 66 Comments »
You may have heard the claim that about half of Americans pay no federal income tax. That’s a true fact. My Tax Policy Center colleagues estimate, for example, that 46% of households either will pay no federal income tax in 2011 or will receive more from the IRS than they pay in. Today, TPC released a new study that [...]
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